The Catholic Epistles

[gbausc]

Shlama Akhi John,

I can tell you for Paul that he holds to the 22 book canon as the original canon of the Church of The East. The reason he has the Gospels and Acts in the Interlinear is that he has not finished the translation of Acts, let alone the rest of the NT.
He will also tell you that Erica Hunter is all wet, if she believes the Eastern churches held a five book canon.

You may have misunderstood her. The Catholic epistles are only nine in number(counting Hebrews & Revelation). To exclude them still leaves 18 books. Pauls epistles are not Catholic epistles.

The early churches did not apparently all agree on the 27 book canon in the first two centuries.

I know that the 22 book canon was very early accepted by most churches in the first century.All of them are quoted as scripture in the early 2nd century and thereafter. Most of the wrangling over the canon was over the 5 books aforementioned. It took another three centuries to officially settle the disputes at Carthage, AD 397.

The Syrian Church also accepts the 27 book canon.
The COE has never wavered from its 22 book canon. All Peshitta mss. reflect this.

Paul and I , with the editorial help of Larry Kelsey and Stephen Silver, will be translating the Khabouris manuscript (an 11th century Eastern Peshitta ms. that is copied from a 4th century ms.) , picking up where Paul left off at Acts 15. This manuscript and text of the Eastern Peshitta has never been published in electronic form ; nor has it ever been translated into English, to my knowledge.

We desire your prayers . It is a monumental undertaking in the history of Bible publishing , Textual Criticism and Christian evangelism and ministry.

Burktha w'Shlama,

Dave